I pretty much agree with all the points of the OP. As much as I wanted to say the reviews were unfair since I'm a massive GOW fan, after two playthroughs I know it really got the reviews it deserved. It just doesn't have the magic of any of the other games, and I found myself bored through several sections of the campaign, especially on a 2nd playthrough. The last half is particularly underwhelming considering it takes place all in one setting essentially, and gets really monotonous.
The story is actually laughably pathetic. It's like the devs spent all of 10 minutes coming up with it. You know it sucks when the stories of the two PSP games put it to shame, since those stories were pretty forgettable too. And where were all the bosses in this game? It felt like deja vu of the first GOW where there were only 3 or so real bosses, and that was always the only complaint I had with the first game. Multiplayer was entirely unnecessary. Reminds me exactly of Metroid Prime 2's multiplayer. Sure it wasn't a broken mess, but it wasn't really any fun either. Some series are simply single player affairs.
Oh well, 1 misstep after 5 killer games doesn't worry me too much though. As long as they learn from the mistakes here I think the series will get back on track next gen with GOW4.
